Okay as I said back on my post on October 16 that all through the month of November that I will be starting a series of reviews based on entertainment properties. What do I mean by entertainment properties? I mean games based on television, movies, and to some extent comics.

   Okay so my first game to kick off my new series is Snoopy and the Red Baron released on the Atari 2600 back in 1983. Published and developed by Atari sees Snoopy in his most classic role as a World War 1 fighting ace taking on his nemesis The Red Baron. Now before I go into the review let me start off by saying I love Snoopy and the whole Peanut Gang. So for me playing this game was kind of like reliving my childhood despite the fact I had never owned an Atari system. So what are my thoughts on if you should play this game or not? Well lets not waste anymore time and get on with the review.

   Difficulty 2: The game itself is not all that hard. Okay that's a little biased seeing that is was released on the 2600 which didn't have the hardware that later systems would have. But it really isn't. All you is fly either to left or the right and shoot down planes. So then how do you score points? You score points by grabbing root beer, hot dogs, and dog bones that drop at various times during the game.

   Depth 2: The game is not really that in depth. Okay granted its for the Atari 2600 and games on that console weren't really known to be in depth. The game, as far as I could tell really doesn't ever end. It just seems to continue for what seemed like forever.

   Story 1: The story is nothing new to fan of The Peanuts. To paraphrase it involves Snoopy sleeping on top of his dog house and dreaming that he is in World War 1 using his dog house as a plane trying to shoot down his long time nemesis The Red Baron.

   Addictiveness 2: How likely am I to go back and play this game again? Not likely at all. How come? Well for one the game gets really repetitive real fast. So for that reason I put it real low.

   Sound 1:  The sound is your basic use of hardware chip tunes like what you would hear from the home computers of the time like The Apple 1 and Apple 2. Trust me when I say they aren't sounds that you want to listen to for long periods of time or remember out side of the game.

   Graphics 5: Given the fact that its a game from the 2600 era the graphics are somewhat surprisingly decent. For the time they are very detailed in that its easy to recognize Snoopy, the planes, and whatever items you need to grab to score points. But like most games from the 2600 it does not hold up well by to days standards.

   Overall 2.2: Overall the game is fun for like 10 minutes and that's it. It get really boring really fast. The only way I'd recommend this game is if you're a fan of the days of the Atari 2600. To Peanuts fans like myself should stay away from this game as there are better ones out there.

Final Thoughts:  Maybe I was a little harsh on the game cause it came out on the 2600 and at the time the console had the same hardware in it as The Apple 2. But even so I still can't recommend the game unless you are a big time Atari 2600 fan.

   Special thanks goes out to Ferdinand for suggesting this game.

Atari 2600 games in general are hit big or miss big for me. I either love the game or hate it, there's very little in between.

This one I will have to try just because it's Snoopy. lol But I do consider myself warned. Thanks for reviewing a game that not many people on here have noticed really.

EDUT: WOW. I just looked at the screenshots: those graphics are really good for the 2600! I expected Snoopy to look like a little squiggly line or a box or something. lol

Eirinn : As did I. I thought for sure he would be like this big white block or something. But he is very well detailed given the console limitations at the time. But as a fan like I said its not a game I'd go back and play again anytime soon. As for the Atari 2600 itself I'm not a fan of the console at all. And I'm talking about the 2600 as a whole. Now what about the 5200 and 7600 versions? Well I can't say anything on them seeing as I haven't had time to set up the controls and play around with them yet. I am hoping to at some point in the future though.

Eh, I played Food Fight on the 7800 a few times back when GenesisJunkie, Sidewinder, and myself had a high score competition. If that game was any indication then the 7800 didn't improve much at all over the first two. Not saying it was a bad system, just that it looked about the same, and played about the same, or at least it does via emulation.

But about this game: the game page says it plays like Defender. Would you say that's an accurate comparison? I'm not a fan of Defender, personally.

Eirinn : never played joust or defender